Category: Metrics Matters

riday. Former ARF CRO Joe Plummer played an important role in launching the group, but I never had the opportunity to attend until now, as a keynote speaker on digital measurement. As you can imagine, I was very honored to address executive leaders from billion dollar brands, industry bodies, consultants, measurement firms, and academics.

Gun Johnson’s essay in The Digital Metrics Field Guide, pointed out the need to identify the effects of paid, owned and earned media individually and how they interact. New research from Marketing Science Institute (MSI) does just that, making important contributions to our understanding and valuable recommendations for strategy. It complements research reported in the Field Guide, especially regarding earned media.

The research looked at two types of goods, what economists call “search goods” and “experience goods.” A search good is easily evaluated before purchase. An experience good is a product or service that is hard to judge in advance, but is evaluated more easily after it is consumed or used. And they looked at familiar and unfamiliar brands within each type.

Her current installment calls out companies that create simplistic indexes, such as Social Chorus and their earned media value index that automatically calculates the dollar value of earned media impressions.

Katie writes:

The notion that measurement can be based on an automatically derived index is ludicrous — let alone putting a summary dollar value on it. These trumped-up “metrics” are social media snake oil. Firms [offering these types of metrics] seduce naïve marketers into putting fake numbers on their social media efforts. These bogus metrics then get passed up the food chain as if they were real measurement.

Not only will such “menacing” numbers be seen for what they are and rejected by the C-suite, they “perpetuate the notion that social media is valuable only because it’s a cheap way to get your messages out. Social media — and PR in general — has far more valuable applications. The most dramatic social media ROI numbers come from organizations that use social media for so much more than broadcasting messages, like customer service, product research, and solving problems.” Yes, she’s for turning your social media goals upside down.